an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations phần 9 pptx

But in every improved and civilised societythis is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body ofthe people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pain

lished in Europe, in the same manner as in ancient Egypt; a language ofthe priests, and a language of the people; a sacred and a profane; a learnedand an unlearned language But it was necessary that the priests shouldunderstand something of that sacred and learned language in which theywere to officiate; and the study of the Latin language therefore made, from G.ed p766

the beginning, an essential part of university education

It was not so with that either of the Greek or of the Hebrew language

1657 [ 21 ]

The infallible decrees of the church had pronounced the Latin translation

of the Bible, commonly called the Latin Vulgate, to have been equallydictated by divine inspiration, and therefore of equal authority with theGreek and Hebrew originals The knowledge of those two languages, there-fore, not being indispensably requisite to a churchman, the study of themdid not for a long time make a necessary part of the common course ofuniversity education There are some Spanish universities, I am assured,

in which the study of the Greek language has never yet made any part ofthat course The first reformers found the Greek text of the New Testa-ment, and even the Hebrew text of the Old, more favorable to their opin-ions than the Vulgate translation, which, as might naturally be supposed,had been gradually accommodated to support the doctrines of the Cath-olic Church They set themselves, therefore, to expose the many errors ofthat translation, which the Roman Catholic clergy were thus put underthe necessity of defending or explaining But this could not well be donewithout some knowledge of the original languages, of which the study wastherefore gradually introduced into the greater part of universities, both

of those which embraced, and of those which rejected, the doctrines of theReformation The Greek language was connected with every part of thatclassical learning which, though at first principally cultivated by Cathol-ics and Italians, happened to come into fashion much about the same timethat the doctrines of the Reformation were set on foot In the greater part

of universities, therefore, that language was taught previous to the study

of philosophy, and as soon as the student had made some progress in theLatin The Hebrew language having no connection with classical learning,and, except the Holy Scriptures, being the language of not a single book inany esteem, the study of it did not commonly commence till after that ofphilosophy, and when the student had entered upon the study of theology

Originally the first rudiments both of the Greek and Latin languages

1658 [ 22 ]

were taught in universities, and in some universities they still continue

to be so In others it is expected that the student should have previouslyacquired at least the rudiments of one or both of those languages, of whichthe study continues to make everywhere a very considerable part of uni-versity education

The ancient Greek philosophy was divided into three great branches;

ies, eclipses, comets; thunder, lightning, and other extraordinary meteors;

the generation, the life, growth, and dissolution of plants and are objects which, as they necessarily excite the wonder, so they natur-ally call forth the curiosity, of mankind to inquire into their causes Su-perstition first attempted to satisfy this curiosity, by referring all thosewonderful appearances to the immediate agency of the gods Philosophyafterwards endeavoured to account for them from more familiar causes, orfrom such as mankind were better acquainted with, than the agency of thegods As those great phenomena are the first objects of human curiosity,

animals-so the science which pretends to explain them must naturally have beenthe first branch of philosophy that was cultivated The first philosophers,accordingly, of whom history has preserved any account, appear to have G.ed p768

been natural philosophers

In every age and country of the world men must have attended to the

1661 [ 25 ]

characters, designs, and actions of one another, and many reputable rulesand maxims for the conduct of human life must have been laid down andapproved of by common consent As soon as writing came into fashion, wisemen, or those who fancied themselves such, would naturally endeavour toincrease the number of those established and respected maxims, and toexpress their own sense of what was either proper or improper conduct,sometimes in the more artificial form of apologues, like what are called thefables of Aesop; and sometimes in the more simple one of apophthegms, orwise sayings, like the Proverbs of Solomon, the verses of Theognis and Pho-cyllides, and some part of the works of Hesiod They might continue in thismanner for a long time merely to multiply the number of those maxims ofprudence and morality, without even attempting to arrange them in anyvery distinct or methodical order, much less to connect them together byone or more general principles from which they were all deducible, like ef-fects from their natural causes The beauty of a systematical arrangement

of different observations connected by a few common principles, was first G.ed p769

seen in the rude essays of those ancient times towards a system of naturalphilosophy Something of the same kind was afterwards attempted in mor-als The maxims of common life were arranged in some methodical order,and connected together by a few common principles, in the same manner

as they had attempted to arrange and connect the phenomena of nature

The science which pretends to investigate and explain those connectingprinciples is what is properly called moral philosophy

Different authors gave different systems both of natural and moral

1662 [ 26 ]

philosophy But the arguments by which they supported those differentsystems, for from being always demonstrations, were frequently at best butvery slender probabilities, and sometimes mere sophisms, which had noother foundation but the inaccuracy and ambiguity of common language

Speculative systems have in all ages of the world been adopted for ons too frivolous to have determined the judgment of any man of commonsense in a matter of the smallest pecuniary interest Gross sophistry has

reas-scarce ever had any influence upon the opinions of mankind, except in ters of philosophy and speculation; and in these it has frequently had thegreatest The patrons of each system of natural and moral philosophy nat- G.ed p770

mat-urally endeavoured to expose the weakness of the arguments adduced tosupport the systems which were opposite to their own In examining thosearguments, they were necessarily led to consider the difference between aprobable and a demonstrative argument, between a fallacious and a con-clusive one: and Logic, or the science of the general principles of good andbad reasoning, necessarily arose out of the observations which a scrutiny

of this kind gave occasion to Though in its origin posterior both to physicsand to ethics, it was commonly taught, not indeed in all, but in the greaterpart of the ancient schools of philosophy, previously to either of those sci-ences The student, it seems to have been thought, to understand wellthe difference between good and bad reasoning before he was led to reasonupon subjects of so great importance

This ancient division of philosophy into three parts was in the greater

1663 [ 27 ]

part of the universities of Europe changed for another into five

In the ancient philosophy, whatever was taught concerning the nature

1664 [ 28 ]

either of the human mind or of the Deity, made a part of the system of ics Those beings, in whatever their essence might be supposed to consist,were parts of the great system of the universe, and parts, too, product-ive of the most important effects Whatever human reason could eitherconclude or conjecture concerning them, made, as it were, two chapters,though no doubt two very important ones, of the science which pretended

phys-to give an account of the origin and revolutions of the great system of theuniverse But in the universities of Europe, where philosophy was taughtonly as subservient to theology, it was natural to dwell longer upon thesetwo chapters than upon any other of the science They were graduallymore and more extended, and were divided into many inferior chapters,till at last the doctrine of spirits, of which so little can be known, came

to take up as much room in the system of philosophy as the doctrine ofbodies, of which so much can be known The doctrines concerning thosetwo subjects were considered as making two distinct sciences What arecalled Metaphysics or Pneumatics were set in opposition to Physics, and G.ed p771

were cultivated not only as the more sublime, but, for the purposes of aparticular profession, as the more useful science of the two The propersubject of experiment and observation, a subject in which a careful atten-tion is capable of making so many useful discoveries, was almost entirelyneglected The subject in which, after a few very simple and almost obvi-ous truths, the most careful attention can discover nothing but obscurityand uncertainty, and can consequently produce nothing but subtleties andsophisms, was greatly cultivated

When those two sciences had thus been set in opposition to one another,

1665 [ 29 ]

the comparison between them naturally gave birth to a third, to what wascalled Ontology, or the science which treated of the qualities and attributes

which were common to both the subjects of the other two sciences But ifsubtleties and sophisms composed the greater part of the Metaphysics orPneumatics of the schools, they composed the whole of this cobweb science

of Ontology, which was likewise sometimes called Metaphysics

Wherein consisted the happiness and perfection of a man, considered

1666 [ 30 ]

not only as an individual, but as the member of a family, of a state, and ofthe great society of mankind, was the object which the ancient moral philo-sophy proposed to investigate In that philosophy the duties of human lifewere treated as subservient to the happiness and perfection of human life

But when moral, as well as natural philosophy, came to be taught only assubservient to theology, the duties of human life were treated of as chieflysubservient to the happiness of a life to come In the ancient philosophythe perfection of virtue was represented as necessarily productive, to theperson who possessed it, of the most perfect happiness in this life In themodern philosophy it was frequently represented as generally, or rather asalmost always, inconsistent with any degree of happiness in this life; andheaven was to be earned only by penance and mortification, by the auster-ities and abasement of a monk; not by the liberal, generous, and spiritedconduct of a man Casuistry and an ascetic morality made up, in mostcases, the greater part of the moral philosophy of the schools By far themost important of all the different branches of philosophy became in thismanner by far the most corrupted

Such, therefore, was the common course of philosophical education in

the greater part of the universities in Europe Logic was taught first: logy came in the second place: Pneumatology, comprehending the doctrineconcerning the nature of the human soul and of the Deity, in the third:

Onto-in the fourth followed a debased system of moral philosophy which wasconsidered as immediately connected with the doctrines of Pneumatology,with the immortality of the human soul, and with the rewards and pun-ishments which, from the justice of the Deity, were to be expected in a life

to come: a short and superficial system of Physics usually concluded thecourse

The alterations which the universities of Europe thus introduced into

This course of philosophy is what still continues to be taught in the

1669 [ 33 ]

greater part of the universities of Europe, with more or less diligence, cording as the constitution of each particular university happens to renderdiligence more or less necessary to the teachers In some of the richestand best endowed universities, the tutors content themselves with teach-

ac-ing a few unconnected shreds and parcels of this corrupted course; andeven these they commonly teach very negligently and superficially.

The improvements which, in modern times, have been made in several

1670 [ 34 ]

different branches of philosophy have not, the greater part of them, beenmade in universities, though some no doubt have The greater part ofuniversities have not even been very forward to adopt those improvementsafter they were made; and several of those learned societies have chosen toremain, for a long time, the sanctuaries in which exploded systems and ob-solete prejudices found shelter and protection after they had been huntedout of every other corner of the world In general, the richest and best en-dowed universities have been the slowest in adopting those improvements,and the most averse to permit any considerable change in the establishedplan of education Those improvements were more easily introduced intosome of the poorer universities, in which the teachers, depending upon G.ed p773

their reputation for the greater part of their subsistence, were obliged topay more attention to the current opinions of the world

But though the public schools and universities of Europe were

origin-1671 [ 35 ]

ally intended only for the education of a particular profession, that ofchurchmen; and though they were not always very diligent in instructingtheir pupils even in the sciences which were supposed necessary for thatprofession, yet they gradually drew to themselves the education of almostall other people, particularly of almost all gentlemen and men of fortune

No better method, it seems, could be fallen upon of spending, with any vantage, the long interval between infancy and that period of life at whichmen begin to apply in good earnest to the real business of the world, thebusiness which is to employ them during the remainder of their days Thegreater part of what is taught in schools and universities, however, doesnot seem to be the most proper preparation for that business

ad-In England it becomes every day more and more the custom to send

is seldom sufficient to enable him either to speak or write them with priety In other respects he commonly returns home more conceited, moreunprincipled, more dissipated, and more incapable of any serious applic-ation either to study or to business than he could well have become in soshort a time had he lived at home By travelling so very young, by spend-ing in the most frivolous dissipation the most precious years of his life,

pro-at a distance from the inspection and control of his parents and relpro-ations,every useful habit which the earlier parts of his education might have had

some tendency to form in him, instead of being riveted and confirmed, isalmost necessarily either weakened or effaced Nothing but the discredit G.ed p774

into which the universities are allowing themselves to fall could ever havebrought into repute so very absurd a practice as that of travelling at thisearly period of life By sending his son abroad, a father delivers himself atleast for some time, from so disagreeable an object as that of a son unem-ployed, neglected, and going to ruin before his eyes

Such have been the effects of some of the modern institutions for

edu-1673 [ 37 ]

cation

Different plans and different institutions for education seem to have

1674 [ 38 ]

taken place in other ages and nations

In the republics of ancient Greece, every free citizen was instructed,

1675 [ 39 ]

under the direction of the public magistrate, in gymnastic exercises and

in music By gymnastic exercises it was intended to harden his body, tosharpen his courage, and to prepare him for the fatigues and dangers ofwar; and as the Greek militia was, by all accounts, one of the best that everwas in the world, this part of their public education must have answeredcompletely the purpose for which it was intended By the other part, music,

it was proposed, at least by the philosophers and historians who have given

us an account of those institutions, to humanize the mind, to soften thetemper, and to dispose it for performing all the social and moral dutiesboth of public and private life

In ancient Rome the exercises of the Campus Martius answered the

1676 [ 40 ]

purpose as those of the Gymnasium in ancient Greece, and they seem tohave answered it equally well But among the Romans there was noth-ing which corresponded to the musical education of the Greeks The mor-als of the Romans, however, both in private and public life, seem to havebeen not only equal, but, upon the whole, a good deal superior to those ofthe Greeks That they were superior in private life, we have the expresstestimony of Polybius and of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, two authors well G.ed p775

acquainted with both nations; and the whole tenor if the Greek and man history bears witness to the superiority of the public morals of theRomans The good temper and moderation of contending factions seems to

Ro-be the most essential circumstances in the public morals of a free people

But the factions of the Greeks were almost always violent and sanguinary;

whereas, till the time of the Gracchi, no blood had ever been shed in anyRoman faction; and from the time of the Gracchi the Roman republic may

be considered as in reality dissolved Notwithstanding, therefore, the veryrespectable authority of Plato, Aristotle, and Polybius, and notwithstand-ing the very ingenious reasons by which Mr Montesquieu endeavours tosupport that authority, it seems probable that the musical education of the G.ed p776

Greeks had no great effect in mending their morals, since, without anysuch education, those of the Romans were upon the whole superior Therespect of those ancient sages for the institutions of their ancestors hadprobably disposed them to find much political wisdom in what was, per-

haps, merely an ancient custom, continued without interruption from theearliest period of those societies to the times in which they had arrived

at a considerable degree of refinement Music and dancing are the greatamusements of almost all barbarous nations, and the great accomplish-ments which are supposed to fit any man for entertaining his society It is

so at this day among the negroes on the coast of Africa It was so amongthe ancient Celts, among the ancient Scandinavians, and, as we may learnfrom Homer, among the ancient Greeks in the times preceding the Trojanwar When the Greek tribes had formed themselves into little republics,

it was natural that the study of those accomplishments should, for a longtime, make a part of the public and common education of the people

The masters who instructed the young people, either in music or in

1677 [ 41 ]

military exercises, do not seem to have been paid, or even appointed by thestate, either in Rome or even in Athens, the Greek republic of whose lawsand customs we are the best informed The state required that every freecitizen should fit himself for defending it in war, and should, upon thataccount, learn his military exercises But it left him to learn them of suchmasters as he could find, and it seems to have advanced nothing for thispurpose but a public field or place of exercise in which he should practise G.ed p777

and perform them

In the early ages both of the Greek and Roman republics, the other

1678 [ 42 ]

parts of education seem to have consisted in learning to read, write, andaccount according to the arithmetic of the times These accomplishmentsthe richer citizens seem frequently to have acquired at home by the assist-ance of some domestic pedagogue, who was generally either a slave or afreed-man; and the poorer citizens, in the schools of such masters as made

a trade of teaching for hire Such parts of education, however, were doned altogether to the care of the parents or guardians of each individual

aban-It does not appear that the state ever assumed any inspection or direction

of them By a law of Solon, indeed, the children were acquitted from taining those parents in their old age who had neglected to instruct them

main-in some profitable trade or busmain-iness

In the progress of refinement, when philosophy and rhetoric came into

1679 [ 43 ]

fashion, the better sort of people used to send their children to the schools

of philosophers and rhetoricians, in order to be instructed in these ionable sciences But those schools were not supported by the public Theywere for a long time barely tolerated by it The demand for philosophy andrhetoric was for a long time so small that the first professed teachers ofeither could not find constant employment in any one city, but were obliged

fash-to travel about from place fash-to place In this manner lived Zeno of Elea, agoras, Gorgias, Hippias, and many others As the demand increased, theschools both of philosophy and rhetoric became stationary; first in Athens,and afterwards in several other cities The state, however, seems never tohave encouraged them further than by assigning some of them a partic-ular place to teach in, which was sometimes done too by private donors G.ed p778

Prot-The state seems to have assigned the Academy to Plato, the Lyceum toAristotle, and the Portico to Zeno of Citta, the founder of the Stoics ButEpicurus bequeathed his gardens to his own school Till about the time

of Marcus Antonius, however, no teacher appears to have had any salaryfrom the public, or to have had any other emoluments but what arose fromthe honoraries or fees of his scholars The bounty which that philosophicalemperor, as we learn from Lucian, bestowed upon one of the teachers ofphilosophy, probably lasted no longer than his own life There was noth-ing equivalent to the privileges of graduation, and to have attended any ofthose schools was not necessary, in order to be permitted to practise anyparticular trade or profession If the opinion of their own utility could notdraw scholars to them, the law neither forced anybody to go to them nor re-warded anybody for having gone to them The teachers had no jurisdictionover their pupils, nor any other authority besides that natural authority,which superior virtue and abilities never fail to procure from young peopletowards those who are entrusted with any part of their education

At Rome, the study of the civil law made a part of the education, not of

1680 [ 44 ]

the greater part of the citizens, but of some particular families The youngpeople, however, who wished to acquire knowledge in the law, had no publicschool to go to, and had no other method of studying it than by frequentingthe company of such of their relations and friends as were supposed to un-derstand it It is perhaps worth while to remark, that though the Laws ofthe Twelve Tables were, many of them, copied from those of some ancientGreek republics, yet law never seems to have grown up to be a science inany republic of ancient Greece In Rome it became a science very early,and gave a considerable degree of illustration to those citizens who hadthe reputation of understanding it In the republics of ancient Greece, par-ticularly in Athens, the ordinary courts of justice consisted of numerous,and therefore disorderly, bodies of people, who frequently decided almost

at random, or as clamour, faction, and party spirit happened to determine

The ignominy of an unjust decision, when it was to be divided among five G.ed p779

hundred, a thousand, or fifteen hundred people (for some of their courtswere so very numerous), could not fall very heavy upon any individual AtRome, on the contrary, the principal courts of justice consisted either of asingle judge or of a small number of judges, whose characters, especially

as they deliberated always in public, could not fail to be very much affected

by any rash or unjust decision In doubtful cases such courts, from theiranxiety to avoid blame, would naturally endeavour to shelter themselvesunder the example or precedent of the judges who had sat before them,either in the same or in some other court This attention to practice andprecedent necessarily formed the Roman law into that regular and orderlysystem in which it has been delivered down to us; and the like attentionhas had the like effects upon the laws of every other country where suchattention has taken place The superiority of character in the Romansover that of the Greeks, so much remarked by Polybius and Dionysius of

Halicarnassus, was probably more owing to the better constitution of theircourts of justice than to any of the circumstances to which those authorsascribe it The Romans are said to have been particularly distinguishedfor their superior respect to an oath But the people who were accustomed

to make oath only before some diligent and well-informed court of justicewould naturally be much more attentive to what they swore than theywho were accustomed to do the same thing before mobbish and disorderlyassemblies

The abilities, both civil and military, of the Greeks and Romans will

1681 [ 45 ]

readily be allowed to have been at least equal to those of any modern tion Our prejudice is perhaps rather to overrate them But except in whatrelated to military exercises, the state seems to have been at no pains toform those great abilities: for I cannot be induced to believe that the mu-sical education of the Greeks could be of much consequence in formingthem Masters, however, had been found, it seems, for instructing the bet- G.ed p780

na-ter sort of people among those nations in every art and science in which thecircumstances of their society rendered it necessary or convenient for them

to be instructed The demand for such instruction produced what it alwaysproduces- the talent for giving it; and the emulation which an unrestrainedcompetition never fails to excite, appears to have brought that talent to avery high degree of perfection In the attention which the ancient philo-sophers excited, in the empire which they acquired over the opinions andprinciples of their auditors, in the faculty which they possessed of giving acertain tone and character to the conduct and conversation of those audit-ors, they appear to have been much superior to any modern teachers Inmodern times, the diligence of public teachers is more or less corrupted

by the circumstances which render them more or less independent of theirsuccess and reputation in their particular professions Their salaries, too,put the private teacher, who would pretend to come into competition withthem, in the same state with a merchant who attempts to trade without abounty in competition with those who trade with a considerable one If hesells his goods at nearly the same price, he cannot have the same profit,and at least, if not bankruptcy and ruin, will infallibly be his lot If he at-tempts to sell them much dearer, he is likely to have so few customers thathis circumstances will not be much mended The privileges of graduation,besides, are in many countries necessary, or at least extremely convenient,

to most men of learned professions, that is, to the far greater part of thosewho have occasion for a learned education But those privileges can beobtained only by attending the lectures of the public teachers The mostcareful attendance upon the ablest instructions of any private teacher can-not always give any title to demand them It is from these different causesthat the private teacher of any of the sciences which are commonly taught

in universities is in modern times generally considered as in the very est order of men of letters A man of real abilities can scarce find out amore humiliating or a more unprofitable employment to turn them to The

low-endowment of schools and colleges have, in this manner, not only ted the diligence of public teachers, but have rendered it almost impossible

corrup-to have any good private ones

Were there no public institutions for education, no system, no science

of conversation among gentlemen and men of the world

There are no public institutions for the education of women, and there

1683 [ 47 ]

is accordingly nothing useless, absurd, or fantastical in the common course

of their education They are taught what their parents or guardians judge

it necessary or useful for them to learn, and they are taught nothingelse Every part of their education tends evidently to some useful pur-pose; either to improve the natural attractions of their person, or to formtheir mind to reserve, to modesty, to chastity, and to economy; to renderthem both likely to become the mistresses of a family, and to behave prop-erly when they have become such In every part of her life a woman feelssome conveniency or advantage from every part of her education It sel-dom happens that a man, in any part of his life, derives any conveniency

or advantage from some of the most laborious and troublesome parts of hiseducation

Ought the public, therefore, to give no attention, it may be asked, to the

1684 [ 48 ]

education of the people? Or if it ought to give any, what are the differentparts of education which it ought to attend to in the different orders of thepeople? and in what manner ought it to attend to them?

In some cases the state of the society necessarily places the greater

1685 [ 49 ]

part of individuals in such situations as naturally form in them, withoutany attention of government, almost all the abilities and virtues whichthat state requires, or perhaps can admit of In other cases the state of thesociety does not place the part of individuals in such situations, and someattention of government is necessary in order to prevent the almost entirecorruption and degeneracy of the great body of the people

In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far

1686 [ 50 ]

greater part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of thepeople, comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently

to one or two But the understandings of the greater part of men arenecessarily formed by their ordinary employments The man whose whole G.ed p782

life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects areperhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exerthis understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients forremoving difficulties which never occur He naturally loses, therefore, thehabit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it

is possible for a human creature to become The torpor of his mind rendershim not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational con-versation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, andconsequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of theordinary duties of private life Of the great and extensive interests of hiscountry he is altogether incapable of judging, and unless very particularpains have been taken to render him otherwise, he is equally incapable

of defending his country in war The uniformity of his stationary life urally corrupts the courage of his mind, and makes him regard with ab-horrence the irregular, uncertain, and adventurous life of a soldier It cor-rupts even the activity of his body, and renders him incapable of exertinghis strength with vigour and perseverance in any other employment thanthat to which he has been bred His dexterity at his own particular tradeseems, in this manner, to be acquired at the expense of his intellectual,social, and martial virtues But in every improved and civilised societythis is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body ofthe people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains toprevent it

nat-It is otherwise in the barbarous societies, as they are commonly called,

in a civilised society, seems to benumb the understanding of almost all theinferior ranks of people In those barbarous societies, as they are called,every man, it has already been observed, is a warrior Every man, too, is insome measure a statesman, and can form a tolerable judgment concerningthe interest of the society and the conduct of those who govern it How fartheir chiefs are good judges in peace, or good leaders in war, is obvious tothe observation of almost every single man among them In such a society,indeed, no man can well acquire that improved and refined understandingwhich a few men sometimes possess in a more civilised state Though in

a rude society there is a good deal of variety in the occupations of everyindividual, there is not a great deal in those of the whole society Everyman does, or is capable of doing, almost every thing which any other mandoes, or is capable of doing Every man has a considerable degree of know-

ledge, ingenuity, and invention: but scarce any man has a great degree.

The degree, however, which is commonly possessed, is generally sufficientfor conducting the whole simple business of the society In a civilised state,

on the contrary, though there is little variety in the occupations of thegreater part of individuals, there is an almost infinite variety in those ofthe whole society These varied occupations present an almost infinite vari-ety of objects to the contemplation of those few, who, being attached to noparticular occupation themselves, have leisure and inclination to examinethe occupations of other people The contemplation of so great a variety ofobjects necessarily exercises their minds in endless comparisons and com-binations, and renders their understandings, in an extraordinary degree,both acute and comprehensive Unless those few, however, happen to beplaced in some very particular situations, their great abilities, though hon-ourable to themselves, may contribute very little to the good government orhappiness of their society Notwithstanding the great abilities of those few,all the nobler parts of the human character may be, in a great measure, G.ed p784

obliterated and extinguished in the great body of the people

The education of the common people requires, perhaps, in a civilised

1688 [ 52 ]

and commercial society the attention of the public more than that of people

of some rank and fortune People of some rank and fortune are generallyeighteen or nineteen years of age before they enter upon that particularbusiness, profession, or trade, by which they propose to distinguish them-selves in the world They have before that full time to acquire, or at least tofit themselves for afterwards acquiring, every accomplishment which canrecommend them to the public esteem, or render them worthy of it Theirparents or guardians are generally sufficiently anxious that they should be

so accomplished, and are, in most cases, willing enough to lay out the pense which is necessary for that purpose If they are not always properlyeducated, it is seldom from the want of expense laid out upon their educa-tion, but from the improper application of that expense It is seldom fromthe want of masters, but from the negligence and incapacity of the masterswho are to be had, and from the difficulty, or rather from the impossibility,which there is in the present state of things of finding any better The em-ployments, too, in which people of some rank or fortune spend the greaterpart of their lives are not, like those of the common people, simple anduniform They are almost all of them extremely complicated, and such asexercise the head more than the hands The understandings of those whoare engaged in such employments can seldom grow torpid for want of ex-ercise The employments of people of some rank and fortune, besides, areseldom such as harass them from morning to night They generally have

ex-a good deex-al of leisure, during which they mex-ay perfect themselves in everybranch either of useful or ornamental knowledge of which they may havelaid the foundation, or for which they may have acquired some taste in theearlier part of life

It is otherwise with the common people They have little time to spare

1689 [ 53 ]

for education Their parents can scarce afford to maintain them even ininfancy As soon as they are able to work they must apply to some trade

by which they can earn their subsistence That trade, too, is generally so G.ed p785

simple and uniform as to give little exercise to the understanding, while,

at the same time, their labour is both so constant and so severe, that itleaves them little leisure and less inclination to apply to, or even to think

of, anything else

But though the common people cannot, in any civilised society, be so

1690 [ 54 ]

well instructed as people of some rank and fortune, the most essentialparts of education, however, to read, write, and account, can be acquired

at so early a period of life that the greater part even of those who are to

be bred to the lowest occupations have time to acquire them before theycan be employed in those occupations For a very small expense the publiccan facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the wholebody of the people the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts ofeducation

The public can facilitate this acquisition by establishing in every parish

1691 [ 55 ]

or district a little school, where children may be taught for a reward somoderate that even a common labourer may afford it; the master beingpartly, but not wholly, paid by the public, because, if he was wholly, oreven principally, paid by it, he would soon learn to neglect his business

In Scotland the establishment of such parish schools has taught almostthe whole common people to read, and a very great proportion of them

to write and account In England the establishment of charity schoolshas had an effect of the same kind, though not so universally, becausethe establishment is not so universal If in those little schools the books,

by which the children are taught to read, were a little more instructivethan they commonly are, and if, instead of a little smattering of Latin,which the children of the common people are sometimes taught there, andwhich can scarce ever be of any use to them, they were instructed in theelementary parts of geometry and mechanics, the literary education of thisrank of people would perhaps be as complete as it can be There is scarce

a common trade which does not afford some opportunities of applying to it G.ed p786

the principles of geometry and mechanics, and which would not thereforegradually exercise and improve the common people in those principles, thenecessary introduction to the most sublime as well as to the most usefulsciences

The public can encourage the acquisition of those most essential parts

It was in this manner, by facilitating the acquisition of their military

1694 [ 58 ]

and gymnastic exercises, by encouraging it, and even by imposing uponthe whole body of the people the necessity of learning those exercises, thatthe Greek and Roman republics maintained the martial spirit of their re-spective citizens They facilitated the acquisition of those exercises by ap-pointing a certain place for learning and practising them, and by granting

to certain masters the privilege of teaching in that place Those masters donot appear to have had either salaries or exclusive privileges of any kind

Their reward consisted altogether in what they got from their scholars;

and a citizen who had learnt his exercises in the public gymnasia had nosort of legal advantage over one who had learnt them privately, providedthe latter had learnt them equally well Those republics encouraged theacquisition of those exercises by bestowing little premiums and badges ofdistinction upon: those who excelled in them To have gained a prize in theOlympic, Isthmian, or Nemaean games, gave illustration, not only to theperson who gained it, but to his whole family and kindred The obligationwhich every citizen was under to serve a certain number of years, if calledupon, in the armies of the republic, sufficiently imposed the necessity oflearning those exercises, without which he could not be fit for that service

That in the progress of improvement the practice of military exercises,

1695 [ 59 ]

unless government takes proper pains to support it, goes gradually to cay, and, together with it, the martial spirit of the great body of the people,the example of modern Europe sufficiently demonstrates But the security G.ed p787

de-of every society must always depend, more or less, upon the martial spirit

of the great body of the people In the present times, indeed, that martialspirit alone, and unsupported by a well-disciplined standing army, wouldnot perhaps be sufficient for the defence and security of any society Butwhere every citizen had the spirit of a soldier, a smaller standing armywould surely be requisite That spirit, besides, would necessarily dimin-ish very much the dangers to liberty, whether real or imaginary, which arecommonly apprehended from a standing army As it would very much facil-itate the operations of that army against a foreign invader, so it would ob-struct them as much if, unfortunately, they should ever be directed againstthe constitution of the state

The ancient institutions of Greece and Rome seem to have been much

1696 [ 60 ]

more effectual for maintaining the martial spirit of the great body of thepeople than the establishment of what are called the militias of moderntimes They were much more simple When they were once establishedthey executed themselves, and it required little or no attention from gov-ernment to maintain them in the most perfect vigour Whereas to main-tain, even in tolerable execution, the complex regulations of any mod-ern militia, requires the continual and painful attention of government,without which they are constantly falling into total neglect and disuse Theinfluence, besides, of the ancient institutions was much more universal Bymeans of them the whole body of the people was completely instructed in

the use of arms Whereas it is but a very small part of them who can ever

be so instructed by the regulations of any modern militia, except, perhaps,that of Switzerland But a coward, a man incapable either of defending or

of revenging himself, evidently wants one of the most essential parts of thecharacter of a man He is as much mutilated and deformed in his mind asanother is in his body, who is either deprived of some of its most essentialmembers, or has lost the use of them He is evidently the more wretchedand miserable of the two; because happiness and misery, which reside al-together in the mind, must necessarily depend more upon the healthful orunhealthful, the mutilated or entire state of the mind, than upon that ofthe body Even though the martial spirit of the people were of no use to-wards the defence of the society, yet to prevent that sort of mental mutila-tion, deformity, and wretchedness, which cowardice necessarily involves in

it, from spreading themselves through the great body of the people, wouldstill deserve the most serious attention of government, in the same man-ner as it would deserve its most serious attention to prevent a leprosy or G.ed p788

any other loathsome and offensive disease, though neither mortal nor gerous, from spreading itself among them, though perhaps no other publicgood might result from such attention besides the prevention of so great apublic evil

dan-The same thing may be said of the gross ignorance and stupidity which,

1697 [ 61 ]

in a civilised society, seem so frequently to benumb the understandings ofall the inferior ranks of people A man without the proper use of the in-tellectual faculties of a man, is, if possible, more contemptible than even acoward, and seems to be mutilated and deformed in a still more essentialpart of the character of human nature Though the state was to derive noadvantage from the instruction of the inferior ranks of people, it would stilldeserve its attention that they should not be altogether uninstructed Thestate, however, derives no inconsiderable advantage from their instruction

The more they are instructed the less liable they are to the delusions ofenthusiasm and superstition, which, among ignorant nations, frequentlyoccasion the most dreadful disorders An instructed and intelligent people,besides, are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupidone They feel themselves, each individually, more respectable and morelikely to obtain the respect of their lawful superiors, and they are there-fore more disposed to respect those superiors They are more disposed toexamine, and more capable of seeing through, the interested complaints offaction and sedition, and they are, upon that account, less apt to be misledinto any wanton or unnecessary opposition to the measures of government

In free countries, where the safety of government depends very much uponthe favourable judgment which the people may form of its conduct, it mustsurely be of the highest importance that they should not be disposed tojudge rashly or capriciously concerning it

such as a landed estate, a tithe or land tax, an established salary or pend Their exertion, their zeal and industry, are likely to be much greater

sti-in the former situation than sti-in the latter In this respect the teachers

of new religions have always had a considerable advantage in attacking G.ed p789

those ancient and established systems of which the clergy, reposing selves upon their benefices, had neglected to keep up the fervour of faithand devotion in the great body of the people, and having given themselves

them-up to indolence, were become altogether incapable of making any ous exertion in defence even of their own establishment The clergy of anestablished and well-endowed religion frequently become men of learningand elegance, who possess all the virtues of gentlemen, or which can re-commend them to the esteem of gentlemen: but they are apt gradually tolose the qualities, both good and bad, which gave them authority and in-fluence with the inferior ranks of people, and which had perhaps been theoriginal causes of the success and establishment of their religion Such aclergy, when attacked by a set of popular and bold, though perhaps stu-pid and ignorant enthusiasts, feel themselves as perfectly defenceless asthe indolent, effeminate, and full-fed nations of the southern parts of Asiawhen they were invaded by the active, hardy, and hungry Tartars of theNorth Such a clergy, upon such an emergency, have commonly no other re-source than to call upon the civil magistrate to persecute, destroy or driveout their adversaries, as disturbers of the public peace It was thus thatthe Roman Catholic clergy called upon the civil magistrates to persecutethe Protestants, and the Church of England to persecute the Dissenters;

vigor-and that in general every religious sect, when it has once enjoyed for acentury or two the security of a legal establishment, has found itself in-capable of making any vigorous defence against any new sect which chose

to attack its doctrine or discipline Upon such occasions the advantage inpoint of learning and good writing may sometimes be on the side of theestablished church But the arts of popularity, all the arts of gaining pros-elytes, are constantly on the side of its adversaries In England those arts

have been long neglected by the well-endowed clergy of the establishedchurch, and are at present chiefly cultivated by the Dissenters and by theMethodists The independent provisions, however, which in many placeshave been made for dissenting teachers by means of voluntary subscrip-tions, of trust rights, and other evasions of the law, seem very much tohave abated the zeal and activity of those teachers They have many ofthem become very learned, ingenious, and respectable men; but they have

in general ceased to be very popular preachers The Methodists, withouthalf the learning of the Dissenters, are much more in vogue

In the Church of Rome, the industry and zeal of the inferior clergy are

1699 [ 2 ]

kept more alive by the powerful motive of self-interest than perhaps in any G.ed p790

established Protestant church The parochial clergy derive, many of them,

a very considerable part of their subsistence from the voluntary oblations

of the people; a source of revenue which confession gives them many portunities of improving The mendicant orders derive their whole sub-sistence from such oblations It is with them as with the hussars and lightinfantry of some armies; no plunder, no pay The parochial clergy are likethose teachers whose reward depends partly upon their salary, and partlyupon the fees or honoraries which they get from their pupils, and thesemust always depend more or less upon their industry and reputation Themendicant orders are like those teachers whose subsistence depends al-together upon the industry They are obliged, therefore, to use every artwhich can animate the devotion of the common people The establishment

op-of the two great mendicant orders op-of St Dominic and St Francis, it is served by Machiavel, revived, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,the languishing faith and devotion of the Catholic Church In Roman Cath-olic countries the spirit of devotion is supported altogether by the monksand by the poorer parochial clergy The great dignitaries of the church,with all the accomplishments of gentlemen and men of the world, andsometimes with those of men of learning, are careful enough to maintainthe necessary discipline over their inferiors, but seldom give themselvesany trouble about the instruction of the people

ob-‘Most of the arts and professions in a state,’ says by far the most

‘But there are also some callings, which, though useful and even

ne-1701 [ 4 ]

cessary in a state, bring no advantage or pleasure to any individual, and

the supreme power is obliged to alter its conduct with regard to the tainers of those professions It must give them public encouragement in G.ed p791

re-order to their subsistence, and it must provide against that negligence towhich they will naturally be subject, either by annexing particular hon-ours to the profession, by establishing a long subordination of ranks and

a strict dependence, or by some other expedient The persons employed inthe finances, fleets, and magistracy, are instances of this order of men

‘It may naturally be thought, at first sight, that the ecclesiastics belong

1702 [ 5 ]

to the first class, and that their encouragement, as well as that of lawyersand physicians, may safely be entrusted to the liberality of individuals,who are attached to their doctrines, and who find benefit or consolationfrom their spiritual ministry and assistance Their industry and vigilancewill, no doubt, be whetted by such an additional motive; and their skill

in the profession, as well as their address in governing the minds of thepeople, must receive daily increase from their increasing practice, study,and attention

‘But if we consider the matter more closely, we shall find that this

inter-1703 [ 6 ]

ested diligence of the clergy is what every wise legislator will study to vent; because in every religion except the true it is highly pernicious, and ithas even a natural tendency to pervert the true, by infusing into it a strongmixture of superstition, folly, and delusion Each ghostly practitioner, inorder to render himself more precious and sacred in the eyes of his retain-ers, will inspire them with the most violent abhorrence of all other sects,and continually endeavour, by some novelty, to excite the languid devotion

pre-of his audience No regard will be paid to truth, morals, or decency in thedoctrines inculcated Every tenet will be adopted that best suits the dis-orderly affections of the human frame Customers will be drawn to eachconventicle by new industry and address in practising on the passions andcredulity of the populace And in the end, the civil magistrate will find that

he has dearly paid for his pretended frugality, in saving a fixed ment for the priests; and that in reality the most decent and advantageouscomposition which he can make with the spiritual guides, is to bribe theirindolence by assigning stated salaries to their profession, and rendering itsuperfluous for them to be farther active than merely to prevent their flockfrom straying in quest of new pastures And in this manner ecclesiasticalestablishments, though commonly they arose at first from religious views,prove in the end advantageous to the political interests of society.’

establish-But whatever may have been the good or bad effects of the independent

1704 [ 7 ]

provision of the clergy, it has, perhaps, been very seldom bestowed uponthem from any view to those effects Times of violent religious controversyhave generally been times of equally violent political faction Upon suchoccasions, each political party has either found it, or imagined it, for its G.ed p792

interest to league itself with some one or other of the contending religioussects But this could be done only by adopting, or at least by favouring,the tenets of that particular sect The sect which had the good fortune

to be leagued with the conquering party necessarily shared in the victory

of its ally, by whose favour and protection it was soon enabled in somedegree to silence and subdue all its adversaries Those adversaries hadgenerally leagued themselves with the enemies of the conquering party,and were therefore the enemies of that party The clergy of this particularsect having thus become complete masters of the field, and their influenceand authority with the great body of the people being in its highest vigour,they were powerful enough to overawe the chiefs and leaders of their ownparty, and to oblige the civil magistrate to respect their opinions and in-clinations Their first demand was generally that he should silence andsubdue an their adversaries: and their second, that he should bestow anindependent provision on themselves As they had generally contributed

a good deal to the victory, it seemed not unreasonable that they shouldhave some share in the spoil They were weary, besides, of humouring thepeople, and of depending upon their caprice for a subsistence In makingthis demand, therefore, they consulted their own ease and comfort, withouttroubling themselves about the effect which it might have in future timesupon the influence and authority of their order The civil magistrate, whocould comply with this demand only by giving them something which hewould have chosen much rather to take, or to keep to himself, was seldomvery forward to grant it Necessity, however, always forced him to submit

at last, though frequently not till after many delays, evasions, and affectedexcuses

But if politics had never called in the aid of religion, had the conquering

1705 [ 8 ]

party never adopted the tenets of one sect more than those of another when

it had gained the victory, it would probably have dealt equally and tially with all the different sects, and have allowed every man to choose hisown priest and his own religion as he thought proper There would in thiscase, no doubt’ have been a great multitude of religious sects Almost everydifferent congregation might probably have made a little sect by itself, orhave entertained some peculiar tenets of its own Each teacher would nodoubt have felt himself under the necessity of making the utmost exertionand of using every art both to preserve and to increase the number of hisdisciples But as every other teacher would have felt himself under thesame necessity, the success of no one teacher, or sect of teachers, couldhave been very great The interested and active zeal of religious teacherscan be dangerous and troublesome only where there is either but one secttolerated in the society, or where the whole of a large society is divided intotwo or three great sects; the teachers of each acting by concert, and under G.ed p793

impar-a regulimpar-ar discipline impar-and subordinimpar-ation But thimpar-at zeimpar-al must be impar-altogetherinnocent where the society is divided into two or three hundred, or perhapsinto as many thousand small sects, of which no one could be considerableenough to disturb the public tranquility The teachers of each sect, seeingthemselves surrounded on all sides with more adversaries than friends,would be obliged to learn that candour and moderation which is so seldom

to be found among the teachers of those great sects whose tenets, beingsupported by the civil magistrate, are held in veneration by almost allthe inhabitants of extensive kingdoms and empires, and who therefore seenothing round them but followers, disciples, and humble admirers Theteachers of each little sect, finding themselves almost alone, would be ob-liged to respect those of almost every other sect, and the concessions whichthey would mutually find it both convenient and agreeable to make to oneanother, might in time probably reduce the doctrine of the greater part

of them to that pure and rational religion, free from every mixture of surdity, imposture, or fanaticism, such as wise men have in all ages ofthe world wished to see established; but such as positive law has perhapsnever yet established, and probably never will establish, in any country:

ab-because, with regard to religion, positive law always has been, and ably always will be, more or less influenced by popular superstition andenthusiasm This plan of ecclesiastical government, or more properly of noecclesiastical government, was what the sect called Independents, a sect

prob-no doubt of very wild enthusiasts, proposed to establish in England wards the end of the civil war If it had been established, though of a veryunphilosophical origin, it would probably by this time have been product-ive of the most philosophical good temper and moderation with regard toevery sort of religious principle It has been established in Pennsylvania,where, though the Quakers happen to be the most numerous, the law inreality favours no one sect more than another, and it is there said to havebeen productive of this philosophical good temper and moderation

to-But though this equality of treatment should not be productive of

1706 [ 9 ]

this good temper and moderation in all, or even in the greater part ofthe religious sects of a particular country; yet provided those sects weresufficiently numerous, and each of them consequently too small to disturb G.ed p794

the public tranquillity, the excessive zeal of each for its particular tenetscould not well be productive of any very harmful effects, but, on the con-trary, of several good ones: and if the government was perfectly decidedboth to let them all alone, and to oblige them all to let alone one another,there is little danger that they would not of their own accord subdividethemselves fast enough so as soon to become sufficiently numerous

In every civilised society, in every society where the distinction of ranks

1707 [ 10 ]

has once been completely established, there have been always two ent schemes or systems of morality current at the same time; of whichthe one may be called the strict or austere; the other the liberal, or, if youwill, the loose system The former is generally admired and revered bythe common people: the latter is commonly more esteemed and adopted bywhat are called people of fashion The degree of disapprobation with which

differ-we ought to mark the vices of levity, the vices which are apt to arise fromgreat prosperity, and from the excess of gaiety and good humour, seems toconstitute the principal distinction between those two opposite schemes orsystems In the liberal or loose system, luxury, wanton and even disorderly

mirth, the pursuit of pleasure to some degree of intemperance, the breach

of chastity, at least in one of the two sexes, etc., provided they are not companied with gross indecency, and do not lead to falsehood or injustice,are generally treated with a good deal of indulgence, and are easily eitherexcused or pardoned altogether In the austere system, on the contrary,those excesses are regarded with the utmost abhorrence and detestation

ac-The vices of levity are always ruinous to the common people, and a singleweek’s thoughtlessness and dissipation is often sufficient to undo a poorworkman for ever, and to drive him through despair upon committing themost enormous crimes The wiser and better sort of the common people,therefore, have always the utmost abhorrence and detestation of such ex-cesses, which their experience tells them are so immediately fatal to people

of their condition The disorder and extravagance of several years, on thecontrary, will not always ruin a man of fashion, and people of that rank arevery apt to consider the power of indulging in some degree of excess as one

of the advantages of their fortune, and the liberty of doing so without sure or reproach as one of the privileges which belong to their station Inpeople of their own station, therefore, they regard such excesses with but

cen-a smcen-all degree of discen-approbcen-ation, cen-and censure them either very slightly ornot at all

Almost all religious sects have begun among the common people, from

1708 [ 11 ]

whom they have generally drawn their earliest as well as their most merous proselytes The austere system of morality has, accordingly, beenadopted by those sects almost constantly, or with very few exceptions; forthere have been some It was the system by which they could best recom- G.ed p795

nu-mend themselves to that order of people to whom they first proposed theirplan of reformation upon what had been before established Many of them,perhaps the greater part of them, have even endeavoured to gain credit byrefining upon this austere system, and by carrying it to some degree of follyand extravagance; and this excessive rigour has frequently recommendedthem more than anything else to the respect and veneration of the commonpeople

A man of rank and fortune is by his station the distinguished member

1709 [ 12 ]

of a great society, who attend to every part of his conduct, and who therebyoblige him to attend to every part of it himself His authority and consider-ation depend very much upon the respect which this society bears to him

He dare not do anything which would disgrace or discredit him in it, and

he is obliged to a very strict observation of that species of morals, whetherliberal or austere, which the general consent of this society prescribes topersons of his rank and fortune A man of low condition, on the contrary,

is far from being a distinguished member of any great society While heremains in a country village his conduct may be attended to, and he may

be obliged to attend to it himself In this situation, and in this situationonly, he may have what is called a character to lose But as soon as hecomes into a great city he is sunk in obscurity and darkness His conduct

is observed and attended to by nobody, and he is therefore very likely toneglect it himself, and to abandon himself to every sort of low profligacyand vice He never emerges so effectually from this obscurity, his conductnever excites so much the attention of any respectable society, as by hisbecoming the member of a small religious sect He from that moment ac-quires a degree of consideration which he never had before All his brother G.ed p795

sectaries are, for the credit of the sect, interested to observe his conduct,and if he gives occasion to any scandal, if he deviates very much fromthose austere morals which they almost always require of one another, topunish him by what is always a very severe punishment, even where nocivil effects attend it, expulsion or excommunication from the sect In littlereligious sects, accordingly, the morals of the common people have beenalmost always remarkably regular and orderly; generally much more sothan in the established church The morals of those little sects, indeed,have frequently been rather disagreeably rigorous and unsocial

There are two very easy and effectual remedies, however, by whose joint

1710 [ 13 ]

operation the state might, without violence, correct whatever was unsocial

or disagreeably rigorous in the morals of all the little sects into which thecountry was divided

The first of those remedies is the study of science and philosophy, which

by every person before he was permitted to exercise any liberal profession,

or before he could be received as a candidate for any honourable office oftrust or profit If the state imposed upon this order of men the necessity oflearning, it would have no occasion to give itself any trouble about provid-ing them with proper teachers They would soon find better teachers forthemselves than any whom the state could provide for them Science is thegreat antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition; and where allthe superior ranks of people were secured from it, the inferior ranks couldnot be much exposed to it

The second of those remedies is the frequency and gaiety of public

diver-1712 [ 15 ]

sions The state, by encouraging, that is by giving entire liberty to all thosewho for their own interest would attempt without scandal or indecency, toamuse and divert the people by painting, poetry, music, dancing; by allsorts of dramatic representations and exhibitions, would easily dissipate,

in the greater part of them, that melancholy and gloomy humour which isalmost always the nurse of popular superstition and enthusiasm Publicdiversions have always been the objects of dread and hatred to all the fan-atical promoters of those popular frenzies The gaiety and good humour G.ed p797

which those diversions inspire were altogether inconsistent with that per of mind which was fittest for their purpose, or which they could bestwork upon Dramatic representations, besides, frequently exposing their

tem-artifices to public ridicule, and sometimes even to public execration, wereupon that account, more than all other diversions, the objects of their pe-culiar abhorrence.

In a country where the law favoured the teachers of no one religion

ap-of his subjects; that is, to hinder them from persecuting, abusing, or pressing one another But it is quite otherwise in countries where there is

op-an established or governing religion The sovereign cop-an in this case never

be secure unless he has the means of influencing in a considerable degreethe greater part of the teachers of that religion

The clergy of every established church constitute a great

incorpora-1714 [ 17 ]

tion They can act in concert, and pursue their interest upon one planand with one spirit, as much as if they were under the direction of oneman; and they are frequently, too, under such direction Their interest as

an incorporated body is never the same with that of the sovereign, and issometimes directly opposite to it Their great interest is to maintain theirauthority with the people; and this authority depends upon the supposedcertainty and importance of the whole doctrine which they inculcate, andupon the supposed necessity of adopting every part of it with the most im-plicit faith, in order to avoid eternal misery Should the sovereign have theimprudence to appear either to deride or doubt himself of the most triflingpart of their doctrine, or from humanity attempt to protect those who dideither the one or the other, the punctilious honour of a clergy who have

no sort of dependency upon him is immediately provoked to proscribe him

as a profane person, and to employ all the terrors of religion in order tooblige the people to transfer their allegiance to some more orthodox andobedient prince Should he oppose any of their pretensions or usurpations,the danger is equally great The princes who have dared in this manner

to rebel against the church, over and above this crime of rebellion havegenerally been charged, too, with the additional crime of heresy, notwith-standing their solemn protestations of their faith and humble submission

to every tenet which she thought proper to prescribe to them But the thority of religion is superior to every other authority The fears which itsuggests conquer all other fears When the authorized teachers of religionpropagate through the great body of the people doctrines subversive of the G.ed p798

au-authority of the sovereign, it is by violence only, or by the force of a ing army, that he can maintain his authority Even a standing army cannot

stand-in this case give him any laststand-ing security; because if the soldiers are notforeigners, which can seldom be the case, but drawn from the great body ofthe people, which must almost always be the case, they are likely to be soon

corrupted by those very doctrines The revolutions which the turbulence

of the Greek clergy was continually occasioning at Constantinople, as long

as the eastern empire subsisted; the convulsions which, during the course

of several centuries, the turbulence of the Roman clergy was continuallyoccasioning in every part of Europe, sufficiently demonstrate how precari-ous and insecure must always be the situation of the sovereign who has

no proper means of influencing the clergy of the established and governingreligion of his country

Articles of faith, as well as all other spiritual matters, it is evident

1715 [ 18 ]

enough, are not within the proper department of a temporal sovereign,who, though he may be very well qualified for protecting, is seldom sup-posed to be so for instructing the people With regard to such matters,therefore, his authority can seldom be sufficient to counterbalance theunited authority of the clergy of the established church The public tran-quillity, however, and his own security, may frequently depend upon thedoctrines which they may think proper to propagate concerning such mat-ters As he can seldom directly oppose their decision, therefore, withproper weight and authority, it is necessary that he should be able to influ-ence it; and be can influence it only by the fears and expectations which hemay excite in the greater part of the individuals of the order Those fearsand expectations may consist in the fear of deprivation or other punish-ment, and in the expectation of further preferment

In all Christian churches the benefices of the clergy are a sort of

free-1716 [ 19 ]

holds which they enjoy, not during pleasure, but during life or good haviour If they held them by a more precarious tenure, and were liable

be-to be turned out upon every slight disobligation either of the sovereign

or of his ministers, it would perhaps be impossible for them to maintaintheir authority with the people, who would then consider them as mercen-ary dependents upon the court, in the security of whose instructions theycould no longer have any confidence But should the sovereign attemptirregularly, and by violence, to deprive any number of clergymen of theirfreeholds, on account, perhaps, of their having propagated, with more thanordinary zeal, some factious or seditious doctrine, he would only render, bysuch persecution, both them and their doctrine ten times more popular,and therefore ten times more troublesome and dangerous, than they hadbeen before Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of govern-ment, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order ofmen who have the smallest pretensions to independency To attempt to ter- G.ed p799

rify them serves only to irritate their bad humour, and to confirm them in

an opposition which more gentle usage perhaps might easily induce themeither to soften or to lay aside altogether The violence which the Frenchgovernment usually employed in order to oblige all their parliaments, orsovereign courts of justice, to enregister any unpopular edict, very seldomsucceeded The means commonly employed, however, the imprisonment

of all the refractory members, one would think were forcible enough The

princes of the house of Stewart sometimes employed the like means in der to influence some of the members of the Parliament of England; andthey generally found them equally intractable The Parliament of Eng-land is now managed in another manner; and a very small experimentwhich the Duke of Choiseul made about twelve years ago upon the Parlia-ment of Paris, demonstrated sufficiently that all the parliaments of Francemight have been managed still more easily in the same manner That ex-periment was not pursued For though management and persuasion arealways the easiest and the safest instruments of governments, as forceand violence are the worst and the most dangerous, yet such, it seems, isthe natural insolence of man that he almost always disdains to use thegood instrument, except when he cannot or dare not use the bad one TheFrench government could and durst use force, and therefore disdained touse management and persuasion But there is no order of men, it appears,

or-I believe, from the experience of all ages, upon whom it is so dangerous,

or rather so perfectly ruinous, to employ force and violence, as upon therespected clergy of any established church The rights, the privileges, thepersonal liberty of every individual ecclesiastic who is upon good termswith his own order are, even in the most despotic governments, more re-spected than those of any other person of nearly equal rank and fortune

It is so in every gradation of despotism, from that of the gentle and mildgovernment of Paris to that of the violent and furious government of Con-stantinople But though this order of men can scarce ever be forced, theymay be managed as easily as any other; and the security of the sovereign,

as well as the public tranquillity, seems to depend very much upon themeans which he has of managing them; and those means seem to consistaltogether in the preferment which he has to bestow upon them

In the ancient constitution of the Christian church, the bishop of each

1717 [ 20 ]

diocese was elected by the joint votes of the clergy and of the people ofthe episcopal city The people did not long retain their right of election;

and while they did retain it, they almost always acted under the influence

of the clergy, who in such spiritual matters appeared to be their naturalguides The clergy, however, soon grew weary of the trouble of managingthem, and found it easier to elect their own bishops themselves The ab-bot, in the same manner, was elected by the monks of the monastery, atleast in the greater part of the abbacies All the inferior ecclesiastical be- G.ed p800

nefices comprehended within the diocese were collated by the bishop, whobestowed them upon such ecclesiastics as he thought proper All churchpreferments were in this manner in the disposal of the church The sover-eign, though he might have some indirect influence in those elections, andthough it was sometimes usual to ask both his consent to elect and his ap-probation of the election, yet had no direct or sufficient means of managingthe clergy The ambition of every clergyman naturally led him to pay courtnot so much to his sovereign as to his own order, from which only he couldexpect preferment

Through the greater part of Europe the Pope gradually drew to

him-1718 [ 21 ]

self first the collation of almost all bishoprics and abbacies, or of whatwere called Consistorial benefices, and afterwards, by various machina-tions and pretences, of the greater part of inferior benefices comprehendedwithin each diocese; little more being left to the bishop than what wasbarely necessary to give him a decent authority with his own clergy Bythis arrangement the condition of the sovereign was still worse than it hadbeen before The clergy of all the different countries of Europe were thusformed into a sort of spiritual army, dispersed in different quarters, indeed,but of which all the movements and operations could now be directed byone head, and conducted upon one uniform plan The clergy of each partic-ular country might be considered as a particular detachment of that army,

or which the operations could easily be supported and seconded by all theother detachments quartered in the different countries round about Eachdetachment was not only independent of the sovereign of the country inwhich it was quartered, and by which it was maintained, but dependentupon a foreign sovereign, who could at any time turn its arms against thesovereign of that particular country, and support them by the arms of allthe other detachments

Those arms were the most formidable that can well be imagined In

1719 [ 22 ]

the ancient state of Europe, before the establishment of arts and tures, the wealth of the clergy gave them the same sort of influence overthe common people which that of the great barons gave them over their re-spective vassals, tenants, and retainers In the great landed estates whichthe mistaken piety both of princes and private persons had bestowed uponthe church, jurisdictions were established of the same kind with those ofthe great barons, and for the same reason In those great landed estates, G.ed p801

manufac-the clergy, or manufac-their bailiffs, could easily keep manufac-the peace without manufac-the support

or assistance either of the king or of any other person; and neither the kingnor any other person could keep the peace there without the support andassistance of the clergy The jurisdictions of the clergy, therefore, in theirparticular baronies or manors, were equally independent, and equally ex-clusive of the authority of the king’s courts, as those of the great temporallords The tenants of the clergy were, like those of the great barons, almostall tenants at will, entirely dependent upon their immediate lords, andtherefore liable to be called out at pleasure in order to fight in any quarrel

in which the clergy might think proper to engage them Over and abovethe rents of those estates, the clergy possessed in the tithes, a very largeportion of the rents of all the other estates in every kingdom of Europe

The revenues arising from both those species of rents were, the greaterpart of them, paid in kind, in corn, wine, cattle poultry, etc The quant-ity exceeded greatly what the clergy could themselves consume; and therewere neither arts nor manufactures for the produce of which they could ex-change the surplus The clergy could derive advantage from this immensesurplus in no other way than by employing it, as the great barons employed

the like surplus of their revenues, in the most profuse hospitality, and inthe most extensive charity Both the hospitality and the charity of the an-cient clergy, accordingly, are said to have been very great They not onlymaintained almost the whole poor of every kingdom, but many knightsand gentlemen had frequently no other means of subsistence than by trav-elling about from monastery to monastery, under pretence of devotion, but

in reality to enjoy the hospitality of the clergy The retainers of some ticular prelates were often as numerous as those of the greatest lay-lords;

par-and the retainers of all the clergy taken together were, perhaps, more merous than those of all the lay-lords There was always much more unionamong the clergy than among the lay-lords The former were under a reg-ular discipline and subordination to the papal authority The latter wereunder no regular discipline or subordination, but almost always equallyjealous of one another, and of the king Though the tenants and retainers

nu-of the clergy, therefore, had both together been less numerous than those nu-ofthe great lay-lords, and their tenants were probably much less numerous,yet their union would have rendered them more formidable The hospit- G.ed p802

ality and charity of the clergy, too, not only gave them the command of agreat temporal force, but increased very much the weight of their spiritualweapons Those virtues procured them the highest respect and venerationamong all the inferior ranks of people, of whom many were constantly, andalmost all occasionally, fed by them Everything belonging or related to sopopular an order, its possessions, its privileges, its doctrines, necessarilyappeared sacred in the eyes of the common people, and every violation ofthem, whether real or pretended, the highest act of sacrilegious wicked-ness and profaneness In this state of things, if the sovereign frequentlyfound it difficult to resist the confederacy of a few of the great nobility, wecannot wonder that he should find it still more so to resist the united force

of the clergy of his own dominions, supported by that of the clergy of all theneighbouring dominions In such circumstances the wonder is, not that hewas sometimes obliged to yield, but that he ever was able to resist

The privilege of the clergy in those ancient times (which to us who live

1720 [ 23 ]

in the present times appear the most absurd), their total exemption fromthe secular jurisdiction, for example, or what in England was called the be-nefit of the clergy, were the natural or rather the necessary consequences

of this state of things How dangerous must it have been for the sovereign

to attempt to punish a clergyman for any crime whatever, if his own orderwere disposed to protect him, and to represent either the proof as insuffi-cient for convicting so holy a man, or the punishment as too severe to beinflicted upon one whose person had been rendered sacred by religion? Thesovereign could, in such circumstances, do no better than leave him to betried by the ecclesiastical courts, who, for the honour of their own order,were interested to restrain, as much as possible, every member of it fromcommitting enormous crimes, or even from giving occasion to such grossscandal as might disgust the minds of the people

In the state in which things were through the greater part of Europe

1721 [ 24 ]

during the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, and for sometime both before and after that period, the constitution of the Church ofRome may be considered as the most formidable combination that ever wasformed against the authority and security of civil government, as well as G.ed p803

against the liberty, reason, and happiness of mankind, which can flourishonly where civil government is able to protect them In that constitutionthe grossest delusions of superstition were supported in such a manner bythe private interests of so great a number of people as put them out of alldanger from any assault of human reason: because though human reasonmight perhaps have been able to unveil, even to the eyes of the commonpeople, some of the delusions of superstition, it could never have dissolvedthe ties of private interest Had this constitution been attacked by no otherenemies but the feeble efforts of human reason, it must have endured forever But that immense and well-built fabric, which all the wisdom andvirtue of man could never have shaken, much less have overturned, was

by the natural course of things, first weakened, and afterwards in partdestroyed, and is now likely, in the course of a few centuries more, perhaps,

to crumble into ruins altogether

The gradual improvements of arts, manufactures, and commerce, the

1722 [ 25 ]

same causes which destroyed the power of the great barons, destroyed inthe same manner, through the greater part of Europe, the whole temporalpower of the clergy In the produce of arts, manufactures, and commerce,the clergy, like the great barons, found something for which they couldexchange their rude produce, and thereby discovered the means of spend-ing their whole revenues upon their own persons, without giving any con-siderable share of them to other people Their charity became graduallyless extensive, their hospitality less liberal or less profuse Their retainersbecame consequently less numerous, and by degrees dwindled away alto-gether The clergy too, like the great barons, wished to get a better rentfrom their landed estates, in order to spend it, in the same manner, uponthe gratification of their own private vanity and folly But this increase

of rent could be got only by granting leases to their tenants, who therebybecame in a great measure independent of them The ties of interest which G.ed p804

bound the inferior ranks of people to the clergy were in this manner ally broken and dissolved They were even broken and dissolved soonerthan those which bound the same ranks of people to the great barons: be-cause the benefices of the church being, the greater part of them, muchsmaller than the estates of the great barons, the possessor of each bene-fice was much sooner able to spend the whole of its revenue upon his ownperson During the greater part of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuriesthe power of the great barons was, through the greater part of Europe, infull vigour But the temporal power of the clergy, the absolute commandwhich they had once had over the great body of the people, was very muchdecayed The power of the church was by that time very nearly reduced

gradu-through the greater part of Europe to what arose from her spiritual thority; and even that spiritual authority was much weakened when itceased to be supported by the charity and hospitality of the clergy Theinferior ranks of people no longer looked upon that order, as they had donebefore, as the comforters of their distress, and the relievers of their indi-gence On the contrary, they were provoked and disgusted by the vanity,luxury, and expense of the richer clergy, who appeared to spend upon theirown pleasures what had always before been regarded as the patrimony ofthe poor.

au-In this situation of things, the sovereigns in the different states of

1723 [ 26 ]

Europe endeavoured to recover the influence which they had once had

in the disposal of the great benefices of the church, by procuring to thedeans and chapters of each diocese the restoration of their ancient right ofelecting the bishop, and to the monks of each abbacy that of electing theabbot The re-establishing of this ancient order was the object of severalstatutes enacted in England during the course of the fourteenth century,particularly of what is called the Statute of Provisors; and of the PragmaticSanction established in France in the fifteenth century In order to renderthe election valid, it was necessary that the sovereign should both consent

to it beforehand, and afterwards approve of the person elected; and thoughthe election was still supposed to be free, he had, however, all the indir-ect means which his situation necessarily afforded him of influencing theclergy in his own dominions Other regulations of a similar tendency wereestablished in other parts of Europe But the power of the pope in the col-lation of the great benefices of the church seems, before the Reformation,

to have been nowhere so effectually and so universally restrained as inFrance and England The Concordat afterwards, in the sixteenth century,gave to the kings of France the absolute right of presenting to all the great, G.ed p805

or what are called the consistorial, benefices of the Gallican Church

Since the establishment of the Pragmatic Sanction and of the

Con-1724 [ 27 ]

cordat, the clergy of France have in general shown less respect to the crees of the papal court than the clergy of any other Catholic country Inall the disputes which their sovereign has had with the pope, they havealmost constantly taken party with the former This independency of theclergy of France upon the court of Rome seems to be principally foundedupon the Pragmatic Sanction and the Concordat In the earlier periods ofthe monarchy, the clergy of France appear to have been as much devoted

de-to the pope as those of any other country When Robert, the second prince

of the Capetian race, was most unjustly excommunicated by the court ofRome, his own servants, it is said, threw the victuals which came from histable to the dogs, and refused to taste anything themselves which littlebeen polluted by the contact of a person in his situation They were taught

to do so, it may very safely be presumed, by the clergy of his own ions

domin-The claim of collating to the great benefices of the church, a claim in

1725 [ 28 ]

defence of which the court of Rome had frequently shaken, and sometimesoverturned the thrones of some of the greatest sovereigns in Christendom,was in this manner either restrained or modified, or given up altogether, inmany different parts of Europe, even before the time of the Reformation.

As the clergy had now less influence over the people, so the state had moreinfluence over the clergy The clergy, therefore, had both less power andless inclination to disturb the state

The authority of the Church of Rome was in this state of declension

1726 [ 29 ]

when the disputes which gave birth to the Reformation began in many, and soon spread themselves through every part of Europe The newdoctrines were everywhere received with a high degree of popular favour

Ger-They were propagated with all that enthusiastic zeal which commonly imates the spirit of party when it attacks established authority The teach-ers of those doctrines, though perhaps in other respects not more learnedthan many of the divines who defended the established church, seem ingeneral to have been better acquainted with ecclesiastical history, and withthe origin and progress of that system of opinions upon which the author-ity of the church was established, and they had thereby some advantage

an-in almost every dispute The austerity of their manners gave them ity with the common people, who contrasted the strict regularity of theirconduct with the disorderly lives of the greater part of their own clergy G.ed p806

author-They possessed, too, in a much higher degree than their adversaries allthe arts of popularity and of gaining proselytes, arts which the lofty anddignified sons of the church had long neglected as being to them in a greatmeasure useless The reason of the new doctrines recommended them tosome, their novelty to many; the hatred and contempt of the establishedclergy to a still greater number; but the zealous, passionate, and fanat-ical, though frequently coarse and rustic, eloquence with which they werealmost everywhere inculcated, recommended them to by far the greatestnumber

The success of the new doctrines was almost everywhere so great that

1727 [ 30 ]

the princes who at that time happened to be on bad terms with the court

of Rome were by means of them easily enabled, in their own dominions,

to overturn the church, which, having lost the respect and veneration ofthe inferior ranks of people, could make scarce any resistance The court

of Rome had disobliged some of the smaller princes in the northern parts

of Germany, whom it had probably considered as too insignificant to beworth the managing They universally, therefore, established the Reform-ation in their own dominions The tyranny of Christian II and of Troll,Archbishop of Upsala, enabled Gustavus Vasa to expel them both fromSweden The pope favoured the tyrant and the archbishop, and GustavusVasa found no difficulty in establishing the Reformation in Sweden Chris-tian II was afterwards deposed from the throne of Denmark, where hisconduct had rendered him as odious as in Sweden The pope, however, wasstill disposed to favour him, and Frederick of Holstein, who had moun-

ted the throne in his stead, revenged himself by following the example ofGustavus Vasa The magistrates of Berne and Zurich, who had no particu-lar quarrel with the pope, established with great ease the Reformation intheir respective cantons, where just before some of the clergy had, by animposture somewhat grosser than ordinary, rendered the whole order bothodious and contemptible.

In this critical situation of its affairs, the papal court was at sufficient

1728 [ 31 ]

pains to cultivate the friendship of the powerful sovereigns of France andSpain, of whom the latter was at that time Emperor of Germany Withtheir assistance it was enabled, though not without great difficulty andmuch bloodshed, either to suppress altogether or to obstruct very muchthe progress of the Reformation in their dominions It was well enoughinclined, too, to be complaisant to the King of England But from thecircumstances of the times, it could not be so without giving offence to astill greater sovereign, Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of Germany

Henry VIII accordingly, though he did not embrace himself the greater G.ed p807

part of the doctrines of the Reformation, was yet enabled, by their generalprevalence, to suppress all the monasteries, and to abolish the authority ofthe Church of Rome in his dominions That he should go so far, though hewent no further, gave some satisfaction to the patrons of the Reformation,who having got possession of the government in the reign of his son andsuccessor, completed without any difficulty the work which Henry VIII hadbegun

In some countries, as in Scotland, where the government was weak,

1729 [ 32 ]

unpopular, and not very firmly established, the Reformation was strongenough to overturn, not only the church, but the state likewise for attempt-ing to support the church

Among the followers of the Reformation dispersed in all the different

1730 [ 33 ]

countries of Europe, there was no general tribunal which, like that of thecourt of Rome, or an oecumenical council, could settle all disputes amongthem, and with irresistible authority prescribe to all of them the preciselimits of orthodoxy When the followers of the Reformation in one coun-try, therefore, happened to differ from their brethren in another, as theyhad no common judge to appeal to, the dispute could never be decided; andmany such disputes arose among them Those concerning the government

of the church, and the right of conferring ecclesiastical benefices, were haps the most interesting to the peace and welfare of civil society Theygave birth accordingly to the two principal parties of sects among the fol-lowers of the Reformation, the Lutheran and Calvinistic sects, the onlysects among them of which the doctrine and discipline have ever yet beenestablished by law in any part of Europe

per-The followers of Luther, together with what is called the Church of

Eng-1731 [ 34 ]

land, preserved more or less of the episcopal government, established ordination among the clergy, gave the sovereign the disposal of all the bish-oprics and other consistorial benefices within his dominions, and thereby

sub-rendered him the real head of the church; and without depriving thebishop of the right of collating to the smaller benefices within his diocese,they, even to those benefices, not only admitted, but favoured the right ofpresentation both in the sovereign and in all other lay-patrons This sys-tem of church government was from the beginning favourable to peace andgood order, and to submission to the civil sovereign It has never, accord-ingly, been the occasion of any tumult or civil commotion in any country

in which it has once been established The Church of England in lar has always valued herself, with great reason, upon the unexceptionableloyalty of her principles Under such a government the clergy naturally en-deavour to recommend themselves to the sovereign, to the court, and to thenobility and gentry of the country, by whose influence they chiefly expect to G.ed p808

particu-obtain preferment They pay court to those patrons sometimes, no doubt,

by the vilest flattery and assentation, but frequently, too, by cultivating allthose arts which best deserve, and which are therefore most likely to gainthem the esteem of people of rank and fortune; by their knowledge in allthe different branches of useful and ornamental learning, by the decent lib-erality of their manners, by the social good humour of their conversation,and by their avowed contempt of those absurd and hypocritical austeritieswhich fanatics inculcate and pretend to practise, in order to draw uponthemselves the veneration, and upon the greater part of men of rank andfortune, who avow that they do not practise them, the abhorrence of thecommon people Such a clergy, however, while they pay their court in thismanner to the higher ranks of life, are very apt to neglect altogether themeans of maintaining their influence and authority with the lower Theyare listened to, esteemed, and respected by their superiors; but before theirinferiors they are frequently incapable of defending, effectually and to theconviction of such hearers, their own sober and moderate doctrines againstthe most ignorant enthusiast who chooses to attack them

The followers of Zwingli, or more properly those of Calvin, on the

con-1732 [ 35 ]

trary, bestowed upon the people of each parish, whenever the church came vacant, the right of electing their own pastor, and established at thesame time the most perfect equality among the clergy The former part ofthis institution, as long as it remained in vigour, seems to have been pro-ductive of nothing but disorder and confusion, and to have tended equally

be-to corrupt the morals both of the clergy and of the people The latter partseems never to have had any effects but what were perfectly agreeable

As long as the people of each parish preserved the right of electing their

but in all the neighbouring parishes, who seldom failed to take part in thequarrel When the parish happened to be situated in a great city, it dividedall the inhabitants into two parties; and when that city happened either

to constitute itself a little republic, or to be the head and capital of a littlerepublic, as is the case with many of the considerable cities in Switzerlandand Holland, every paltry dispute of this kind, over and above exasperat-ing the animosity of all their other factions, threatened to leave behind itboth a new schism in the church, and a new faction in the state In those G.ed p809

small republics, therefore, the magistrate very soon found it necessary, forthe sake of preserving the public peace, to assume to himself the right ofpresenting to all vacant benefices In Scotland, the most extensive country

in which this Presbyterian form of church government has ever been tablished, the rights of patronage were in effect abolished by the act whichestablished Presbytery in the beginning of the reign of William III Thatact at least put it in the power of certain classes of people in each parish topurchase, for a very small price, the right of electing their own pastor Theconstitution which this act established was allowed to subsist for abouttwo-and-twenty years, but was abolished by the 10th of Queen Anne, c 12,

es-on account of the ces-onfusies-ons and disorders which this more popular mode

of, election had almost everywhere occasioned In so extensive a country

as Scotland, however, a tumult in a remote parish was not so likely to givedisturbance to government as in a smaller state The 10th of Queen Annerestored the rights of patronage But though in Scotland the law gives thebenefice without any exception to the person presented by the patron, yetthe church requires sometimes (for she has not in this respect been veryuniform in her decisions) a certain concurrence of the people before she willconfer upon the presentee what is called the cure of souls, or the ecclesi-astical jurisdiction in the parish She sometimes at least, from an affectedconcern for the peace of the parish, delays the settlement till this concur-rence can be procured The private tampering of some of the neighbouringclergy, sometimes to procure, but more frequently to prevent, this concur-rence, and the popular arts which they cultivate in order to enable themupon such occasions to tamper more effectually, are perhaps the causeswhich principally keep up whatever remains of the old fanatical spirit,either in the clergy or in the people of Scotland

The equality which the Presbyterian form of church government

es-1734 [ 37 ]

tablishes among the clergy, consists, first, in the equality of authority orecclesiastical jurisdiction; and, secondly, in the equality of benefice In allPresbyterian churches the equality of authority is perfect: that of benefice

is not so The difference, however, between one benefice and another is dom so considerable as commonly to tempt the possessor even of the smallone to pay court to his patron by the vile arts of flattery and assentation

sel-in order to get a better In all the Presbyterian churches, where the rights

of patronage are thoroughly established, it is by nobler and better artsthat the established clergy in general endeavour to gain the favour of their

superiors; by their learning, by the irreproachable regularity of their life,and by the faithful and diligent discharge of their duty Their patrons evenfrequently complain of the independency of their spirit, which they are apt G.ed p810

to construe into ingratitude for past favours, but which at worst, perhaps,

is seldom any more than that indifference which naturally arises from theconsciousness that no further favours of the kind are ever to be expected

There is scarce perhaps to be found anywhere in Europe a more learned,decent, independent, and respectable set of men than the greater part ofthe Presbyterian clergy of Holland, Geneva, Switzerland, and Scotland

Where the church benefices are all nearly equal, none of them can be

1735 [ 38 ]

very great, and this mediocrity of benefice, though it may no doubt be ried, too far, has, however, some very agreeable effects Nothing but themost exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune Thevices of levity and vanity necessarily render him ridiculous, and are, be-sides, almost as ruinous to him as they are to the common people In hisown conduct, therefore, he is obliged to follow that system of morals whichthe common people respect the most He gains their esteem and affec-tion by that plan of life which his own interest and situation would leadhim to follow The common people look upon him with that kindness withwhich we naturally regard one who approaches somewhat to our own con-dition, but who, we think, ought to be in a higher Their kindness naturallyprovokes his kindness He becomes careful to instruct them, and attent-ive to assist and relieve them He does not even despise the prejudices

car-of people who are disposed to be so favourable to him, and never treatsthem with those contemptuous and arrogant airs which we so often meetwith in the proud dignitaries of opulent and well-endowed churches ThePresbyterian clergy, accordingly, have more influence over the minds of thecommon people than perhaps the clergy of any other established church It

is accordingly in Presbyterian countries only that we ever find the commonpeople converted, without persecution, completely, and almost to a man, tothe established church

In countries where church benefices are the greater part of them very

1736 [ 39 ]

moderate, a chair in a university is generally a better establishment than achurch benefice The universities have, in this case, the picking and choos-ing of their members from all the churchmen of the country, who, in everycountry, constitute by far the most numerous class of men of letters Wherechurch benefices, on the contrary, are many of them very considerable, thechurch naturally draws from the universities the greater part of their em-inent men of letters, who generally find some patron who does himselfhonour by procuring them church preferment In the former situation weare likely to find the universities filled with the most eminent men of let-ters that are to be found in the country In the latter we are likely to findfew eminent men among them, and those few among the youngest mem-bers of the society, who are likely, too, to be drained away from it beforethey can have acquired experience and knowledge enough to be of much

use to it It is observed by Mr de Voltaire, that Father Porrée, a Jesuit of G.ed p811

no great eminence in the republic of letters, was the only professor theyhad ever had in France whose works were worth the reading In a coun-try which has produced so many eminent men of letters, it must appearsomewhat singular that scarce one of them should have been a professor

in a university The famous Gassendi was, in the beginning of his life, aprofessor in the University of Aix Upon the first dawning of his genius, itwas represented to him that by going into the church he could easily find amuch more quiet and comfortable subsistence, as well as a better situationfor pursuing his studies; and he immediately followed the advice The ob-servation of Mr de Voltaire may be applied, I believe, not only to France,but to all other Roman Catholic countries We very rarely find, in any ofthem, an eminent man of letters who is a professor in a university, except,perhaps, in the professions of law and physic; professions from which thechurch is not so likely to draw them After the Church of Rome, that ofEngland is by far the richest and best endowed church in Christendom InEngland, accordingly, the church is continually draining the universities ofall their best and ablest members; and an old college tutor, who is knownand distinguished in Europe as an eminent man of letters, is as rarely to

be found there as in any Roman Catholic country In Geneva, on the trary, in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, in the Protestant countries

con-of Germany, in Holland, in Scotland, in Sweden, and Denmark, the mosteminent men of letters whom those countries have produced, have, not allindeed, but the far greater part of them, been professors in universities Inthose countries the universities are continually draining the church of allits most eminent men of letters

It may, perhaps, be worth while to remark that, if we expect the poets,

1737 [ 40 ]

a few orators, and a few historians, the far greater part of the other inent men of letters, both of Greece and Rome, appear to have been eitherpublic or private teachers; generally either of philosophy or of rhetoric

em-This remark will be found to hold true from the days of Lysias and crates, of Plato and Aristotle, down to those of Plutarch and Epictetus, ofSuetonius and Quintilian To impose upon any man the necessity of teach- G.ed p812

Iso-ing, year after year, any particular branch of science, seems, in reality, to

be the most effectual method for rendering him completely master of ithimself By being obliged to go every year over the same ground, if he isgood for anything, he necessarily becomes, in a few years, well acquaintedwith every part of it: and if upon any particular point he should form toohasty an opinion one year, when he comes in the course of his lectures toreconsider the same subject the year thereafter, he is very likely to correct

it As to be a teacher of science is certainly the natural employment of

a mere man of letters, so is it likewise, perhaps, the education which ismost likely to render him a man of solid learning and knowledge The me-diocity of church benefices naturally tends to draw the greater part of men

of letters, in the country where it takes place, to the employment in which

they can be the most useful to the public, and, at the same time, to givethem the best education, perhaps, they are capable of receiving It tends

to render their learning both as solid as possible, and as useful as possible

The revenue of every established church, such parts of it excepted as

1738 [ 41 ]

may arise from particular lands or manors, is a branch, it ought to be served, of the general revenue of the state which is thus diverted to a pur-pose very different from the defence of the state The tithe, for example,

ob-is a real land-tax, which puts it out of the power of the proprietors of land

to contribute so largely towards the defence of the state as they otherwisemight be able to do The rent of land, however, is, according to some, thesole fund, and, according to others, the principal fund, from which, in allgreat monarchies, the exigencies of the state must be ultimately supplied

The more of this fund that is given to the church, the less, it is evident, can

be spared to the state It may be laid down as a certain maxim that, allother things being supposed equal, the richer the church, the poorer mustnecessarily be, either the sovereign on the one hand, or the people on theother; and, in all cases, the less able must the state be to defend itself Inseveral Protestant countries, particularly in all the Protestant cantons ofSwitzerland, the revenue which anciently belonged to the Roman CatholicChurch, the tithes and church lands, has been found a fund sufficient, notonly to afford competent salaries to the established clergy, but to defray,with little or no addition, all the other expenses of the state The magis-trates of the powerful canton of Berne, in particular, have accumulatedout of the savings from this fund a very large sum, supposed to amount to G.ed p813

several millions, part of which is deposited in a public treasure, and part

is placed at interest in what are called the public funds of the differentindebted nations of Europe; chiefly in those of France and Great Britain

What may be the amount of the whole expense which the church, either

of Berne, or of any other Protestant canton, costs the state, I do not tend to know By a very exact account it appears that, in 1755, the wholerevenue of the clergy of the Church of Scotland, including their glebe orchurch lands, and the rent of their manses or dwelling-houses, estimatedaccording to a reasonable valuation, amounted only to 68,514l 1s 5 1

pre-12d

This very moderate revenue affords a decent subsistence to nine hundredand forty-four ministers The whole expense of the church, including what

is occasionally laid out for the building and reparation of churches, and

of the manses of ministers, cannot well be supposed to exceed eighty oreighty-five thousand pounds a year The most opulent church in Christen-dom does not maintain better the uniformity of faith, the fervour of devo-tion, the spirit of order, regularity, and austere morals in the great body

of the people, than this very poorly endowed Church of Scotland All thegood effects, both civil and religious, which an established church can besupposed to produce, are produced by it as completely as by any other Thegreater part of the Protestant churches of Switzerland, which in generalare not better endowed than the Church of Scotland, produce those effects

in a still higher degree In the greater part of the Protestant cantons there

is not a single person to be found who does not profess himself to be ofthe established church If he professes himself to be of any other, indeed,the law obliges him to leave the canton But so severe, or rather indeed

so oppressive a law, could never have been executed in such free countrieshad not the diligence of the clergy beforehand converted to the establishedchurch the whole body of the people, with the exception of, perhaps, a fewindividuals only In some parts of Switzerland, accordingly, where, fromthe accidental union of a Protestant and Roman Catholic country, the con-version has not been so complete, both religions are not only tolerated butestablished by law

The proper performance of every service seems to require that its pay or

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recompense should be, as exactly as possible, proportioned to the nature

of the service If any service is very much underpaid, it is very apt tosuffer by the meanness and incapacity of the greater part of those who areemployed in it If it is very much overpaid, it is apt to suffer, perhaps,still more by their negligence and idleness A man of a large revenue,whatever may be his profession, thinks he ought to live like other men of G.ed p814

large revenues, and to spend a great part of his time in festivity, in vanity,and in dissipation But in a clergyman this train of life not only consumesthe time which ought to be employed in the duties of his function, but inthe eyes of the common people destroys almost entirely that sanctity ofcharacter which can alone enable him to perform those duties with properweight and authority

In an opulent and improved society, where all the different orders of

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people are growing every day more expensive in their houses, in their niture, in their tables, in their dress, and in their equipage, it cannot well

fur-be expected that the sovereign should alone hold out against the fashion

He naturally, therefore, or rather necessarily, becomes more expensive inall those different articles too His dignity even seems to require that heshould become so

As in point of dignity a monarch is more raised above his subjects than

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the chief magistrate of any republic is ever supposed to be above his